Ride #01 - "The first of many" - Baltimore/Westminster/Frederick MD - 09/02/2012

At 7:00 this morning, I entered the world with the usual, painful sound of my alarm clock buzzing and hissing, kicking my ass out of bed. I dragged myself across the floor and hopped into the shower; where after way too many minutes I began to resemble the half-way respectable looking human being that I present to the world each day. After my shower, my next step in the daily grind is usually to lather up my stubble-ridden face with discount shaving cream, and drag an overused razor blade across it until my face resembles that of a victim in a low-budget horror flick. Today was going to be different, however. Today was a special day—a day when I would embark on a new adventure. Today I was going to participate in my first ever group ride, one that I had planned myself (out of sheer excitement and the inability to find an ounce of patience within). I would have loved to have gone on a ride planned by someone more experienced this weekend, but alas, it was not to be.

At 8:38am, eight minutes past my scheduled arrival time, I pulled into "The Filling Station", which is a coffee shop off of York Road. The Filling Station was far enough away from the Baltimore beltway that the surroundings resembled more green than grey. I was late on arrival due to my complete lack of geographic knowledge—I had no idea that the java joint was that far up York Road. The originally posted departure location for the ride was a place called "The Stone Mill Bakery", but a fellow forum contributor pointed out that the Bakery was closed on Sundays so I made a last minute change.

After about 10 minutes, I was in deep concentration trying to get a small plastic disk securely fastened to the top of my coffee cup when I heard the rumbling of a Harley Davidson pull into the parking lot. I knew that it must have been Metallican525 (from the VFRworld.com forum) and his buddy, as he had asked me if it would be cool if he brought a Harley rider along for the ride. Sure enough, I walked outside to the sight of a beautiful 6th gen VFR and what looked like a vibrating two-wheeled Winnebago with engine architecture from the early 1950’s. Turns out it was a 2011 XLRHPQSFCXH.


The initial 3 riders at the departure location.

The three of us chatted it up for a bit while sipping hot coffee and munching sugary pastries, eagerly awaiting the others who had shown interest in the ride. Before we knew it, the clock officially read 9:29am and it was still just the three of us. We suited up in our varying levels of protective attire, brought the machines to life and headed back towards the beltway, which was in the opposite direction of our intended route. We had to travel south a bit to hit the closest gas station, where the ’03 Viffer and the HD could top off their tanks. They had ridden about 50 miles just to get to the starting destination of the ride, and filling up would be required sooner than later.


My beautiful bike in the foreground, Metallican and his pal at the pump in the background.

From here we headed north, passing our meeting location and making a left onto Belfast Road, which we had hoped would take us to Route 25, Falls Road. As it turns out, about 300 feet from Falls road, Belfast Road presents the rider with two options: either make a right onto Western Run Road and go over a single lane bridge covered in unperforated steel plates, or make a left onto Western Run Road and continue on what looks to be pristine pavement. Being the fearless leader I am, I shrugged noticeably at the stop sign, heard chuckles behind me, and went for the pristine pavement. 5 mile later, we were dumped onto Shawan Road, just a few hundred feet from Route 83. I had made a wrong turn, and to remedy the situation we just hopped on 83 north and took it back up to Belfast Road. We took all of the same turns again with increased aggression (as we had now seen them once before and knew what to expect), and when we got to the stop sign we took the single lane bridge. Right up ahead of us was Falls Road. While taking Western Run Road was indeed a mistake, I wouldn’t have done it any other way. That was a very fun stretch of road.


The highlighted route was a road we took by mistake, but it was a pretty fun 5 mile stretch.

Once we were back on Falls Road, we went North up to Gunpowder Road, where we made a left and took a string of back roads into Hampsted. We rode through the smallish town of Hampsted and hopped on Route 482 to Route 27, which was a less than exhilarating stretch bringing us into Westminster for our first stop. We went to Panera Bread, where we purchased a myriad of coffees, sodas and the like, and hung out by our bikes talking about the farkles and bits outfitted to each machine. As we chatted, an exotic note of genuine gear whine sounded with increasing volume, and we knew we had another Viffer on our hands. A glance towards the entrance of the parking lot revealed an Italian Red 5th Gen, ridden by TA-Rocks (also of the VFRworld.com forum). The three of us waved at him and hollered with joy, as if he were a long time friend who we hadn’t seen in a while. When he pulled up, he almost immediately said “is this it?” to which I responded “yeah, unless some more people show up”. I’m betting he could hear the disappointment in my tone. I had done a decent amount of research to get the ride put together, and the attendance was lack-luster at best. TA-Rocks was the last member of the ride to show up, but we still had a lot of fun ahead of us. The pace so far had been spirited but safe, with the Harley keeping pace with a smile on his face.


This photo is Rocks taking off his riding jacket while Metallican and his buddy check out the 5th Gen.


Sexy Viffers with a bagger in the back.

We left Panera and followed TA-Rocks on a route that was slightly different than what I had originally posted on the itinerary. He was familiar with the area, and the route that I had planned to get us out to Route 77 was apparently pretty vanilla. We ended up taking Old Taneytown Road, which parallels the original route. Towards the end of Old Taneytown Road, we pulled into a gas station to clear the bug guts off of our face shields. When it was time to pull out, TA-Rocks led us back out onto Old Taneytown Road, and I sat there pushing an unresponsive starter on what seemed to be a lifeless bike. I mumbled a few words that would’ve likely killed my grandmother if she’d heard me say them, then duck waddled the bike over to the side of the gas station. Right before I dismounted, I looked around to see if I was leaking anything substantial when I noticed that my kickstand was down. I still had the bike in first gear, and even though I had the clutch in, the VFRs safety mechanism kept me from starting with the kickstand down. Slightly embarrassed, I told Metallican what I had done, and he smiled and shook his head. I knew what he was thinking… “NOOB!”

The three of us pulled out of the gas station, where TA-Rocks was waiting for us in the “turn only” center lane of a 5-lane 2-way road. At the next stop light, I got yet another chance to explain to someone what had happened with my bike. Woof.

We hopped onto route 77 west before heading south on some back roads through Cunningham Falls State Park and Frederick Municipal Forrest (a few miles west of route 15). I had anticipated that this would be some of the best roads on the ride, and I was right—almost. For a decent portion of this stretch, we would have been better off on some BMW GS’s or some KTM Adventure bikes, as it was a true gravel road. We kept the speed under 20 in order to keep the shiny side up despite the lack of tarmac. At the end of the gravel road, Mr. Harley thanked us for not kicking up stones onto his modern piece of history. We were all secretly regretting the missed opportunity…

After the gravel road, we hit some lovely curves on a paved road (Tower Road) which was in less than desirable condition. There were cracks, gravel patches, and lots of warping and bumping in the pavement, keeping the speeds down on straights and curves alike. Once Tower Road merged with Gambrill Park Road, the fun switched on and the pace increased dramatically. “Spirited but Safe” became “Spirited”. With a good mix of tight and sweeping curves on clean solid pavement, we were awarded an opportunity to decrease the sizes of our chicken strips in a remote location with a beautifully wooded backdrop. Car and truck traffic was non-existent, and the only consideration we had to keep in mind was to watch out for and respect the few bicyclists who were on the road. With a mix of luck and talent, everyone made it through without any issues and we were onto the next portion of our ride. *Note: If any of you readers can envision trudging through a few miles of gravel road with your bikes for the sake of some moto-paradise, than I’d suggest you hit this spot.


A southbound 12 mile stretch from Route 77 to Route 40; beware of some sections of gravel road and expect some curvaceous rewards for your patience!

After we emerged from the forest, we hopped on Route 40 East and entered downtown Frederick, where we pulled into the parking lot of Black Hog BBQ (which I happened to be extremely excited for). As it turns out, I was 0 for 2 with my planned stop locations, as the BBQ joint was also closed. We lapped a few blocks in downtown Frederick before deciding to stop at a Deli which looked reasonably good and which was close to a parking garage.



We stopped here for lunch, as the place that I had originally chosen was closed.

We entered the garage, rode past the “No Motorcycle Parking” sign, and managed to fit three VFRs and an HD into a single parking space. After we had parked the bikes and had helmets off, we noticed the following sign:


Parked in the library parking garage… notice the sign.

The sign isn’t too legible in the above picture due to my cell phones vintage, but it basically said that the spot we were in was for library parking only. Oh well, guess we’d have to do a bit of light reading on our break…


4 bikes crammed into one spot—angle 1 of 2.


4 bikes crammed into one spot—angle 2 of 2.

After we were done discussing everything there was to discuss over some delicious sandwiches (consisting mostly of political banter, investment strategies, conspiracy theories, etc.), the boys from southern Maryland peeled off and TA-Rocks and I headed for route 26, which I would take back to Baltimore while he peeled off and headed back home to PA. He and I switched bikes for a short stretch before splitting off, and it was an opportunity for both of us to experience different generations of VFR. When we switched back (on the on-ramp for Route 26), we commented on the many similarities and few differences in feel of the bikes, shook hands, and went our separate ways.

After a 45 mile (or so) stretch of boring Route 26, I was back to the beltway and ready to head home. I live downtown in Baltimore, but I decided to take the beltway North, and follow it all the way around to Route 95, just to get a little more saddle time before having to cool and cover the bike for the day. With only a few miles to go before hitting Route 95, the sky opened up, completely blocking my ability to see through the facemask on my budget helmet. I pulled under the first available overpass, and chatted with a man wearing an Essex Motorcycle Club vest who had been riding a custom Victory motorcycle. He had apparently stopped just before the rain came, as his bike was still bone dry. I asked him if I could take a picture of the bikes, and he agreed—to my dismay, my phone had so little battery life left that the camera function wouldn’t work. As the saying goes, if there are no pictures, than it didn’t happen; I guess you can all just assume I made this last part up to add a little closure to the story. It did happen, by the way.

I waited under the overpass for about 15 minutes, and while the rain didn’t stop, it did let up a little. I decided to brave the rain, and after only a mile or two of riding I was lucky enough to hit dry pavement and a brighter (but still overcast) sky. By the time I had gotten home, my bike had dried out and I was able to get inside and peel off the safety gear before covering up my bike. After another 20 minutes or so, it began to rain at home and I was happy that I was in for the day and that my bike was covered and protected.

After a long day of riding (covering less ground than most of you probably cover on an average weekend), I had gained a lot of experience in planning and executing a group ride. I met some fellow bike enthusiasts, learned a lot about the VFR, got to experience riding a 5th Gen, got to eat some good food, and most importantly of all, got to spend some time in the saddle of my new bike. I’m looking forward to planning longer and better rides in the future, by which time I’ll hopefully have a better phone which can take better quality photos. I wish you all good luck with your end of summer riding, and I’m looking forward to meeting some of you on some autumn rides in the near future. Keep the rubber down, and don’t ever forget to corner low.

Thanks for reading!

 

Glad to hear you had a good tyme, Hope you have meny more !

Ride Safe!

 

That was an enjoyable ride and the briefing was very well written. It was entertaining. Are you a writer?

By the way, I did notice on the racetrack the rider sliding. I never noticed on the street but on the pure race arena they do slide. Although they have pads on their knees. You have a race ready style. I never used that style on the street. Official Video Podcast - Qatar 2011 - YouTube
It shows some body shifting on the bike in tight sweeps. Catch you later. We can ride again, sometime.
Here is another vid with VFR400:
HONDA VFR 400 NC30 over the mountain part of the Isle of Man TT circuit - YouTube
VFR800: VFR 800 vtec at Serres Racing Circuit by Viking - YouTube

 

Yeah, I do plan to continue moving my body around on the bike--I find that I'm able to maintain much more speed through a turn by moving my center of gravity to the sides or even front/back in certain situations. At the end of the day, it's my body that i'm trying to move from point A to point B; the bike is just a tool to help me do it faster and more efficiently. By moving that tool around and separating it from my body in certain situations I'm able to squeeze a little more out of it than if I just keep my ass planted in the seat.

 

Another kick ass group ride thanks to VFRW!!! We clocked about 186 miles by the time we got home yesterday. Even a little rain on the way home didn't spoil the ride for us tho. If ya gotta get lost, getting lost on another great road is DEFIANTELY the way to go!!